Traditional Trip of Malnad by Anuradha Mudalagiri Kamath

Malnad region in Shimoga District of Karnataka is not only picturesque with flora and fauna but is a treasure of ancient traditions. Probably, the remoteness of places from main cities and agriculture and agro based home industries have retained the spice of life in its virgin form. House holds follow traditional customs and festivals, cattle yield milk  and most of the homes, food is cooked in traditional way on wood fire, copper and bronze utensils are still used by many for cooking and serving at feasts.

View from Nagara Fort

Nagara Fort

Disfigured statue of Nandi

Nagara town

My old school in Nagara

My college in Nagara

Typical residential house in Nagara

Backyard of house

Agumbe Sahukar Late Vijendra Rao's house where 'Malgudi Days' was shot

I have grown up in the small town Nagara(Bidanoor), had my school and College education there, enjoying every single day of my younger days with the cold breeze of Kodachadri mountain range, the roaring sound of Sharavathi river near Gerasoppe, the silky flow of Tunga river near Tirthahalli and the thunder and rains of Agumbe. The nearby town of Ripponpet has mostly fruit orchards where we get fresh mangoes, guava, sapota and Appemidi.

Accountant's cash and records box

Copper pot for storing rice - Adsali

Bamboo box for storing grains

Some old utensils

Cooking and serving vessels

Copper plates

Copper pot buried in bathroom for hot water

Brass and bronze utensils

Jewelbox

Serving tray

Some more copper and brassware

Implements for serving food

While taking you on a brief picture story of the Keladi dynasty King Shivappa Nayaka's fort of Nagara and our relatives' old house in Agumbe where the popular Doordarshan serial 'Malgudi Days' was picturised, I will also showcase some of the rare pics of traditional implements and utensils and most important, two videos, one with churning of buttermilk with the wooden churner called 'Kadegolu' and the other on making powdered sugar using grinding stone and the wooden stump called 'Onake'.

'Belli' the buffalo

Cows in their shed

Serving food at Dasara feast

Churning buttermilk

Kadegolu is supported by a loop of rope that is fixed to a firm wooden pole. In the olden days they used ceramic pots to make curd and do the churning in that to get butter and buttermilk. Now a days even stainless steel pots are used for convenience. The quality of video may not be good due to bad light but it shows how they do the job dedicatedly and patiently when we get ready made buttermilk and butter at big stores in cities! These videos were shot in Tirthahalli.

We know that butter comes up when buttermilk is churned. As per science, during the churning of buttermilk, many particles of curd undergo rotatory motion. Then the particles with less weight experience more centripetal force and hence those particles accumulate at the center. Heavier particles experience more centrifugal force and so they are forced to the walls of the container away from the center. Hence, light butter particles accumulate at the center due to centripetal force and heavy buttermilk particles thrown away from the center to the walls of the container due to the centrifugal force. This way butter is extracted from butter milk.